RESOURCES

KEYNOTE ADDRESS RECORDING

The opening keynote for the NFG 2018 National Convening was given by Reverend Starsky D. Wilson, President and CEO of Deaconess Foundation. Rev. Wilson also served as a Program Committee Member for the convening.

Rev. Wilson grounded the conference in St. Louis, its recent history, and its current social and political context. In 2014, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon appointed Rev. Wilson to lead the Ferguson Commission, a group of citizens empowered to study the underlying conditions and make public policy recommendations to help the region progress through issues exposed by the tragic death of Michael Brown, Jr. In 2015, they released the ground-breaking Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity Report, calling for sweeping changes in policing, the courts, child well-being and economic mobility.